MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown Municipal Airport was closed for several hours Tuesday as a series of mock disasters struck during the Triennial Emergency Exercise.
The training exercise is mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to test the airport’s emergency plan, Morgantown Fire Chief Mark Caravasos said.
Several local emergency responders, including Morgantown Fire Department (MFD), Mon Health EMS, Morgantown Police Department (MPD), TSA, Monongalia County Health Department and MECCA participated. Airport maintenance workers are also trained to fight fires and are the first on the scene of any airport emergency, Caravasos said. He said he’d eventually like to see a full time city fire department at the airport.
He said the exercise is a great opportunity for different agencies that normally don’t work together to practice handling a real emergency.
WVU Fire Extension Service provided liquid propane fueled aircraft simulators, a helicopter and small passenger plane, which enhanced the training, Caravasos said.
Shortly after 10 a.m. an alarm sounded across the airfield signaling the start of the exercise. Airport firefighters battled a fire that erupted from the helicopter using an airport rescue firefighter truck(ARFF), while MFD battled a fuel fire and rescued trapped persons from the passenger plane.
All the while, Mon Health EMS was treating roughly 25 injured patients.
The patients were played by cadets from the Army National Guard’s Mountaineer Challenge Academy. Program Coordinator Kim Keene said the academy has participated in similar drills in Preston County.
While EMS were treating patients, police officers carried rescued mannequins from the passenger plane to the medical area to receive treatment, while airport firefighters continued to battle the helicopter blaze, which erupted a second time.
As the fires came under control and passengers were rescued, firefighters began to help EMS treat the remaining patients.
James Scott, lieutenant of special operations for Mon Health EMS, said there were 27 patients transported to the hospital and five fatalities, between the aircraft disasters and simulated active shooter scenario MPD practiced.
Two Mon Health ambulances participated, but in a real scenario Scott said there would be seven to 10 buses and a Mountain Line bus to transport the walking wounded. Patients would have been transported to hospitals in Fairmont, Waynesburg, Pa., Mon Health Medical Center and J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital, he said.
One of MFD’s most recent hires, Roman Olszewski, said the training was great and simulated plane and helicopter fires were really beneficial.
“Having to rescue people from the plane was cool,” he said.
Tuesday’s training isn’t a common occurrence, but he said it was important because as a firefighter you can’t become complacent and forget things just because you don’t do them often.
Caravasos said everything went well and they were able to identify areas to improve, such as communication between agencies.
“That’s why we do this,” he said.
The equipment and ability is there, some areas just need fine-tuning, he said. His department will have that opportunity in June. Caravasos said there is scheduled training at the airport, where some of his firefighters will learn to use the ARFF and work on what he noticed needs improvement.
He said the department will conduct after action reports and eventually, the FAA will receive a report on how the exercise went.
